Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Myopic (short sighted) if Khairy stands on Bersatu ticket By Terence Netto
Monday, May 01, 2023
Malaysiakini : Will this sentiment endure, given the spate of corruption charges
recently preferred against top members of the Bersatu leadership cohort?
It’s
too early to say, but when it comes to the question of corruption these
days, it is safer to inquire “Which individual?” rather than “Which
party?” if one is asked about its incidence.
It is obvious the
scourge is widespread and so assertions that some parties are cleaner
than their rivals are now decidedly disingenuous.
Not unpopular in Umno
The corruption index aside, the more significant barometer of the
viability of a party is its ideological orientation and how this can
position it to swim with and transform political currents awash in
society.
In Umno, Khairy was a force for middle-of-the-road
politics, a centrist who was uncomfortable with expressions of
ethnocentrism or of its religious variation.
Umno’s poor
performance in GE15 was the cumulative consequence of its long
abandonment of its originally centrist politics, compounded in recent
decades by its descent into the quagmire of corruption.
Khairy’s
centrist stance was not exactly unpopular in Umno; his sacking was owed
to his criticism of party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who decided he
could afford to get rid of the party’s chief dissenter as he fortified
his grip on Umno.
Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Umno
does have a history of expelled dissenters who waited in the wilderness
for the tides to shift before applying to rejoin the party.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, no favourite of Khairy’s, was the most famous of the discards who returned to triumph within it.
But
Mahathir led Umno astray from its original centrist leanings, vainly
seeking to promote a Malay dominance that was destructive of party and
country.
Waitingout the drought
Umno’s decision to make common cause and support an Anwar Ibrahim-led
government, after GE15 ended in a hung Parliament, is actually the
breather it needs to retrieve its centrist moorings simply from
comingling with similarly minded parties in the ruling government
coalition.
In the process, it will have to shed the corrupt excrescence that has grown over the long years of its rule.
If things head in that direction, Khairy will find conditions more favourable for a return to the party.
However,
if he joins Bersatu to contest for a seat in the Selangor state polls,
likely to be held in July, he will be viewed as a renegade. Umno does
not take too kindly to quislings.
At 47, Khairy is not old in terms of age to find a spell in the wilderness a prospect that is discouraging or daunting.
At 70, his nemesis Zahid is not going to be around for long to stand against Khairy’s possible return to Umno.
Both
a sense of history and a feel for the ebb and tide of his party’s
original sensibility ought to prompt Khairy to wait out the current
drought of his fortunes for shifts that could carry him to better times.
